1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electrical circuit devices including bond pads. More particularly, the invention relates to electrical circuit devices including bond pad extensions used for testing electrical circuit devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bond pads are used with wire bonding techniques for mounting electrical circuit devices, such as semiconductor integrated circuit dies, in electronic packaging. The electrical circuit devices typically include a plurality of relatively small conductive leads that are electrically connected, e.g., by ultrasonic bonding, to wire bond pads of corresponding conductors embedded in the device package.
Some conventional circuit device arrangements include extended bond pads, which are bond pads that have an extended area or region that allows extra room for the placement of test probes during testing of the circuit device. However, in such conventional arrangements, the extended bond pads typically remain in place after testing of the circuit device has been completed. As such, the extended bond pads can add extra capacitance or, at relatively high frequencies, add open-circuited stubs to the circuit device. Such open-circuited stubs are capacitive in nature and exhibit resonances that may result in the undesirable radiation of signals. Other conventional circuit device arrangements include extended bond pads that are broken off or peeled away from the real or original bond pad after testing is performed. However, in such arrangements, subsequent use of the extended bond pads is not possible once the extended bond pad has been permanently removed from the circuit device.
Therefore, a need exists for a reusable, removable, extended bond pad or bond pad extension that does not include or contribute additional parasitic effects to the existing parasitic effects of the associated electrical circuit device.